Red Dead Redemption May Need to Pull a Fallout New Vegas More Than Ever

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 13, 2025 3 Views 7 Min Read
Red Dead Redemption May Need to Pull a Fallout New Vegas More Than Ever

Summary

  • Red Dead Redemption’s continuing popularity has left fans eagerly anticipating a third entry, but Rockstar is known for long development times.
  • With GTA 6 set to release in 2025 and a new Red Dead title still unconfirmed, Rockstar should now consider having another studio create a RDR spin-off akin to Fallout: New Vegas to bridge the gap between entries.
  • Such a move would keep fans engaged, provide more content, and take pressure off Rockstar until an official third RDR entry.

Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption has become one of the most popular and lucrative series in gaming history. The franchise’s sprawling 1800s Western world, rich narratives, and compelling characters have captivated fans since Red Dead Redemption was released in 2010. Rockstar then took nearly ten years to deliver the second title, and RDR2 was an even bigger success in 2019, going on to break records and managing to one-up its predecessor in pretty much every way. Suffice to say the hype and anticipation for a third Red Dead entry has remained high, even though one is yet to be officially confirmed, and is largely assumed to be many years off in any scenario.

Rockstar is well-known for taking its time between projects, and while those efforts to meticulously mold its games into incredible and memorable experiences have paid off, the trade-off is much longer development times compared to other games and studios in a similar league. Grand Theft Auto 6, the upcoming release of its other cornerstone IP, has already spent more than a decade in production with it finally set to drop this year. Given such lengthy intervals along with constant fan demand, Rockstar may wish to consider now more than ever potentially letting another developer take the reins on an RDR spin-off in the vein of Fallout: New Vegas to alleviate the wait between releases.

Image of Red Dead Redemption and The Last of Us Characters

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As The Years Stretch On, Red Dead Redemption Receiving a Fallout: New Vegas-Style Spin-Off Seems More Necessary Than Ever

Fallout: New Vegas Perfectly Bridged the Gap Between Fallout 3 and 4

Bethesda Game Studios released Fallout 3 in 2008 before tapping Obsidian Entertainment for Fallout: New Vegas, which dropped in 2010. BGS then released FO4 in 2015. This spaced out entries nicely, and ensured fans received new titles in a reasonable amount of time. By having another studio create a quality experience between its own, Bethesda was able to keep interest and momentum for Fallout going at the time while focusing on its next installment in The Elder Scrolls. The approach paid off all around, and Rockstar could look now to doing the same.

Fallout: New Vegas had a development cycle of only 18 months, notably more constrained than most games of its type and much shorter compared to Rockstar’s process.

Rockstar Should Seriously Consider Having Another Studio Develop a Red Dead Redemption Spin-Off Soon

The idea of a Red Dead Redemption spin-off like Fallout: New Vegas has been suggested previously, as it would seem a great fit given the circumstances. With Rockstar’s development cycles averaging more than five years, it would be a savvy move for it to take a page from Bethesda’s playbook, especially now that RDR2 is past its five-year mark. Fan support and demand for more RDR content has never truly waned, and assuming Rockstar is planning Red Dead Redemption 3, if it adheres to its previous schedules, this would likely put its release in 2029 at the very earliest, and possibly well into the 2030s.

Rockstar’s parent corporation, Take-Two Interactive, owns more than 20 studios and associates worldwide. There is thus a wealth of resources and talent at its disposal to follow BGS’s example with Fallout: New Vegas and task one of these with a RDR side project if it so chose. This would almost kill two birds with one stone, as a subsidiary could release a spin-off that may not be the “official” third entry, but would deliver more Red Dead while taking some of the pressure off Rockstar itself.

Although Grand Theft Auto 6 is set up to be the major gaming event of 2025, fans will surely still be wondering about what, and when, the next Red Dead Redemption will be. The time might finally be right then for Take-Two and Rockstar to let another studio try its hand at a separate game. This would serve to please fans and tide them over, while at the same time keeping the franchise relevant and in the spotlight until the ostensible next full title.

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